DEARBORN – Ford Motor Co. announced plans for four massive new plants and 10,800 jobs in Kentucky and Tennessee devoted to an all-electric future and invest $7 billion as part of an $11.4 billion partnership with battery maker SK Innovation of South Koreato help inoculate the carmaker from supply chain pressures that have crippled the auto industry. General Motors, Volkswagen and Tesla are building battery plants, too.
With the enormous commitment, Ford CEO Jim Farley on Monday dispelled the notion that he’s not serious about wanting to see 40 percnet of his company’s production go all-electric within 10 years.
The maker of America’s bestselling pickup — the F-150 — plans to move the masses from gas to battery power. That says a lot for a franchise that can sell a million units a year, rolling one off the assembly line every minute. No other vehicle has such mass appeal.
The overwhelming response to the 2022 all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning has spurred Ford to move even more quickly. They see longtime customers wanting to make the switch along with new customers who have been loyal to other brands.
This is part of the reason Ford is pushing so hard.
“It’s a million units of batteries — annual,” Farley said Monday in an interview with the Detroit Free Press. “It’s a million vehicles’ worth of batteries we’re announcing this week.”
Of the four plants scheduled to break ground, only one is a wholly owned Ford plant; the assembly site that will build the F-Series pickup in Tennessee. The other three are joint ventures with SK Innovation of South Korea.
